Page 2288 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 4 August 2021
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compromised in this way. Undertaking these sorts of risk reviews is standard government procedure, and we were happy to undertake this and respond accordingly.
Business—ChooseCBR scheme
MR HANSON: My question is to the minister for business. FOI documents obtained by the Canberra Liberals reveal $230,000 of Canberra taxpayers’ money was budgeted for communications, marketing and administration for the full ChooseCBR rollout. This is despite you signing off on a ministerial brief on 6 May which stated that “the total proposed campaign is $154,000”. The brief noted that “a more significant communications budget has enabled the use of a range of channels to reach more businesses and consumers”. Minister, given less than 20 per cent of eligible businesses benefitted from the scheme, why were you so flippant with Canberra taxpayers’ money?
MS CHEYNE: It is well understood across industry that a communications campaign that is about 10 per cent of an overall spend is pretty appropriate. I know that the Canberra Liberals like to go on about only 20 per cent take-up. Twenty per cent of take-up is very large. We were able to support a huge number of businesses through this. There was no flippancy here. I absolutely dispute that. What we wanted was a strong take-up of the scheme. That is something that the opposition has criticised. This was a strong take-up of the scheme. We actively engaged with businesses. This was money well spent. But, equally, I note that, of the money that was spent on this, we did not need to use all that was budgeted, because the scheme was expended quickly. It did essentially promote itself, and so there were savings. There were savings that were achieved, ultimately.
MR HANSON: Do you take responsibility for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of Canberrans’ money to promote a failed scheme that 80 per cent of eligible businesses did not register for?
MS CHEYNE: I do not agree with the premise of the question.
MS CASTLEY: Minister, how is that you could so easily increase the budget for communications by $76,000?
MS CHEYNE: Madam Speaker, I will take that question on notice. I need to review the documents.
Consumer affairs—right to repair
MR DAVIS: My question is to the Minister for Consumer Affairs. Minister, a few months ago I had the privilege of formally launching the Tuggeranong Repair Cafe organised by SEE-Change, which I understand has grown to become the most popular repair cafe in Canberra. I think it speaks to how important Tuggeranites take our responsibility to recycle, reduce and reuse. Can you please tell me how, as consumer affairs minister, you will advance the right to repair issue so that Canberrans can get products that are properly reparable and we can reduce e-waste and the environmental impact of consumer goods?
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